For the 2016 Holyrood election every voter will be able to cast two votes, one for their chosen constituency candidate and one for the regional list of the party of their choice in the region in which their constituency is located.
In the case of the Scottish Borders, that region is the South of Scotland. Parties will then be assigned a number of list MSPs for the region in proportion to the votes they receive in that region, with the most highly ranked list candidate being elected first and continuing on in descending order of ranking until such point as the party has exhausted its entitlement.
The first step in this process is for regional list candidates to be ranked and in the case of the Scottish Conservative & Unionist party all members and registered supporters are entitled to vote in this ranking process. The deadline for registering as a supporter for the purposes of ranking list candidates is midnight on 31st October 2015.
If you would like to participate in this process, read on.
All members whose subscriptions are up to date as of midnight on 31st October 2015 and who are on the electoral roll will automatically be registered by the association.
Anybody who wishes to register as a supporter should do so by midnight on 31st October 2015 by going to scottishconservatives.com/register or by downloading the attached form, completing it and returning it to the Scottih Conservative & Unionist Party, 67, Northumberland Street, Edinburgh EH3 6JG.
Once the registration deadline has passed, the party will compile a register of those entitled to vote in the ranking process.
On 12th November 2015 letters will be sent to all who have registered containing, inter alia, a ballot paper, statements by each of the regional candidates, and a reply paid envelope. Each voter in the South of Scotland region must choose four regional list candidates by placing a cross next to the names of their chosen candidates. Any South of Scotland ballot paper that is returned with fewer or more than four crosses will be rejected. Complete ballot papers must be received by 5.00 p.m.on 10th December 2015 and the results will be declared on 12th December 2015.
Between 12th November 2015 and 10th December 2015 a series of hustings will be held and these will be addressed by the relevant candidates for the region in question. Any party member and registered supporter may attend the hustings relating to his or her region but it is not a requirement to do so in order to vote and no voting will take place at the hustings.
In the case of the South of Scotland, the four hustings that will be held are:
- 20th November, evening, North Berwick
- 22nd November, afternoon, Dumfries
- 24th November, evening, Galashiels
- 26th November, evening, Ayr
During the period when this ranking process is ongoing, regional list candidates, all of whom are also candidates for individual constituencies in the South of Scotland, will be expected to pursue their constituency campaigns. However, on pain of disqualification, they may not in any way campaign to promote their list ranking other than by means of the aforementioned statement enclosed with the ballot papers or the addresses that they may give to the hustings. Under no circumstances may they make any derogatory comment about any other candidate.
No local association may campaign for any regional list candidate or cadidates, again on pain of that candidate or candidates being disqualified.
Full information about the candidates will be provided in the letter that will be sent out by the party and this website will provide no information about regional list candidates other than to state that all have gone through the party's central vetting procedure and have been adopted as constituency candidates by a local association. The party would therefore be happy for any and, ideally, all of the regional list candidates to be elected as MSPs.
A pdf of the set of rules of the candidate ranking procedures is attached to this article for you to download if you wish.